CSPE - #JC2017 - Diego Brule

Diego Brule - Colaiste Einde Salthill GalwayBeing a climate change activist, and a member of the ISSU, I went into this test pretty confident, although I really didn't know what to expect. I was just praying that climate change or some other topic that I'm passionate about would come up so I can rant for a bit. (Yeah I do that a lot)And I wasn't too wrong to be confident. First few pages flew by, only being confused by anything that was in Irish because in CSPE you can kind of really use common sense to answer anything, but when there's Irish involved and you don't know a word of it you get really confused. (Even though the only Irish word that came up was Áras an Uachtaráin.)

Then the infographics, they were fun enough, as the answers were literally all there and you got to learn something from them too. For example, I learned that co. Donegal lost 7000 people to emigration in 2016 (fun fact?)And finally, the long questions. Before turning into this page I felt the sense of excitement you feel when you're scratching out scratch lottery, but this time I actually won, because, as I wanted, climate change came up, in the form of an Earth Hour question. And it asked me to write a speech. Yasss.I got a weird look from my examiner because of the little smirk I had from writing this speech. But hey, you gotta put emotion into a speech to make it a good one. Oh no. Just as I'm writing this I remember I forgot to answer the last part of that question. It was something along the lines of 'What can your school do to help stewardship of the Earth'. I was on the Green Schools committee and know a thousand different answers to this, WHY DID I FORGET?Oh yeah, because I was having so much fun drawing the poster. Oops.Oh well, I got a chance to write a speech (I love writing and giving speeches so much) and I got to draw a little. 'Twas a fun exam. I hope those 8 forgotten marks don't take my A.

#JC2017 #StateExams #ISSU17

CSPE - #JC2017 - Kurt Scott

Kurt Scott - Ratoath CollegeI think we were all thinking the same thing when we left our CSPE exam today, "Who the hell is the UN General Secretariat?"In all seriousness, the CSPE exam was pretty much exactly how I had expected it would be. Anyone who has practiced using the Junior Cert papers from the previous years should not have been majorly surprised with this exam.A bit of State, Explain, Example, and this exam should have been a good shot at an "A" for most of the students taking it.

#JC2017 #StateExams #ISSU17 

English - #LC2017 - Sarah Connolly

Sarah Connolly - Ratoath CollegeI sat my first leaving cert paper this morning and it's safe to say that I was nervous going in! I woke up at 4am convinced I was late!! But I wasn't and I got to school for our usual pre-exam breakfast (despite not being able to eat any of it because of allergies!). It was a grand paper, with no curveballs thrown in there. I did the Question A from text 1 which was a lovely piece about poetry. It had a lovely 15 mark question about why poetry benefitted you in there as well which suited me lovely! I was delighted to see a question like that. I got the question A done on time (which was a first for me!). I did the Question B of text 2 which was a fabulous piece about people's reliance on online news sources. I was dead chuffed with that as we are supposedly in a “fake news” era so it was very easy to pull ideas together for that. 

I was feeling good going into my composition and there wasn't an awful lot of choice on composition to be fair but there was a speech about democracy that suited me to a tee. I was absolutely delighted to write my composition on that. It took me about an hour and twenty minutes to get it done and I wrote about 6 pages (my handwriting is pretty little to be fair as I fit 15 words a line). I was dead happy with my work that I handed up. Now it wasn't perfect and I still have the big battle ahead tomorrow with paper 2 so I better go look over my last few notes!

#LC2017 #StateExams#ISSU17

English - #LC2017 - Alex Fogerty

  #LC2017 - #EnglishAlex Fogarty - Ratoath CollegeWell, that went well, thank you State Examinations! I was honestly so happy with this paper. I found it to be very fair and pretty well rounded. I answered Question A from Text 3, I enjoyed the theme of that particular text being childhood memories. The questions were very straight forward and I was grateful for that. I then went onto answer Question B from Text 2. Again a very straight forward question and it was actually just lovely. Asking about the biased media... All I had to was go on about Fake News and Donald Trump, easiest opinion piece, just do what I've been doing since November... Complain about Trump. Lastly, I chose No.3 for Section II of the paper. The Speech on Democracy at the World Youth Conference. Honestly, I couldn't have asked for a nicer question! Loved waffling on about politics as I do best, and was even able to bring a very lovely, truthful anecdote. Loved this paper, I hope it went well for everyone else! #LC2017 #StateExams #ISSU17 

English - #LC2017 - Michelle Chiperi Aivazova

 Michelle Chiperi Aivazova - Colaiste Einde Salthill GalwayI woke up this morning feeling quite sick to the stomach, much like the thousands of other students sitting exams today.

The morning went by in a blur, eating and getting ready and hearing everyone chatter and panic before the exam. I have a tactic- avoid and ignore everyone.The exam began with me going through the paper, trying to figure out questions and choosing topics that would suit me. I chose the short story about the tattoo, and reading comprehensions involving poetry and freedom of expression. I love these two things!I feel like the exam went smoothly, the exam hall did smell a bit yuck (I have to mention as my brain kept going back to this detail, unfortunately) but I think the exam flew by otherwise!I hope everyone else did well and isn't panicking too much. They feel like just another summer test really.#LC2017 #StateExams #ISSU17 

English - #LC2017 - Maeve Richardson

 Maeve Richardson - St. Annes Secondary School Tipperary TownYou know in a horror film when the character is approaching an empty corridor? And they shine their torch up onto the ceiling and the monster is suddenly there? Well, yeah that's how the approach to the morning of English paper 1 felt.

So, I saw the first comprehension and jumped right into it. Didn't even look at the others. (Rationality, exams and I are a non-existent combination) so I did the 'world of poetry' question A in about 30 mins. I didn't find this hard really, the visual elements to the images stood out quite clearly!Swiftly moved onto my question B from text 2. I wrote an opinion piece on news in the online world and the reliability of sources which I took as a green light to talk about 'fake news' and Trump. (Which weirdly enough I sorta predicted in my Vlog yesterday) So shoutout to the State Exams Commission for keeping it topical as ever.Finally for composing, which this year I believe had something for everyone. I did question 3 which was writing a speech about how to support democracy at the World Youth Conference and if you're anyway political like me, was a dream question. I sort of went into the history of democracy; its origins, its place in society today. While explaining how education is the best way to support it. (Guess being in ISSU has shown its benefits huh?)Overall it was a lovely paper and I'll be flat out studying for paper 2. So join in #prayingforplath and check in tomorrow for more blogs from us!#LC2017 #StateExams #ISSU17